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Green is a popular color these days. “Going green” is a hot marketing gimmick. Individuals and businesses have made some strides to stop contributing to the environmental mess (that we have all helped to create.) Even though global warming and pollution are worldwide problems, the solution starts with each of us - at home and in the office.

Being an environmentally friendly business is
cost effective. Businesses can cut waste and
costs simultaneously.

Saving money and the Earth:

• Go paperless. Trade paper documents for digital documents. Stop paying for paper, toner and printer servicing. Trading paper mailings for e-mail reduces postage costs. Consider replacing paper catalogs with PDF files. If you send catalogs or print mailings, providing an easy way to opt-out will prevent unwanted waste for your customers and unnecessary costs for you.

• Turn off the power at the end of the work day. Have employees turn off monitors and computers when they leave.

• Strive for a smaller carbon footprint for travel to and from work. Encouraging employees to carpool or ride bikes into work can blunt rising gas prices.

• Reduce breakroom/kitchen waste. Remove disposable products and ask employees to bring their own coffee mugs to work.

• Buy bulk supplies to reduce numbers of individually wrapped products.

The Earth loves efficiency:

• Switching to Energy Star certified appliances allow you to use less energy; additional settings may also help draw minimal power during off hours.

• Motion and/or time sensitive lighting and temperature controls can cut energy use during off hours. Sadly, buying advanced fixtures costs more than having employees simply flip some switches when they leave, but it reduces human error.

• Tankless water heaters reduce the energy required to keep water hot.

• Radiant floor heating reduces extra energy used to heat outside air which may leak into ducts. Water and electric cables are also able to hold more heat than air, making them more efficient heat producers.

• Recycling wasted heat from data centers, waste water, etc., can save real money. Data centers often require energy to cool, while offices in cooler climates (or winter months) are expensive to heat. Filtering cold outside air to cool the data center can reduce your total energy use. Displacing and circulating wasted heat (energy) given off by servers can offset energy use. Routing waste water pipes to preheat water before it reaches the water heater offers additional savings.

Switching to sustainable sources:

• Find a renewable energy supplier that can directly feed your organization or purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) to reduce your carbon footprint. To find renewable energy sources and RECs see http://www.green-e.org/base/re_products?cust=b

• Buying recycled office supplies means less total landfill waste. Although biodegradable hardware (computer parts, phones, printers, etc) are not really available at this point, you can at least use a buying preference that tends toward companies that use less toxic chemicals in the production of their equipment.

• Check options for supplying your own solar/wind/geothermal energy on-site. For many organizations, on-site power options are not realistic. You’ll save money and external energy consumption and you may even be able to sell excess energy back to the grid.

Running a web-based company obviously requires electricity, not to mention any waste or CO2 produced during packaging and shipping. Here are ways to help offset usage:

• Reuse. Print on both sides of office paper, write on both sides of scratch paper, use refillable pens and pencils.

• RECYCLE. If you are not producing much waste, you may reduce costs by taking bags to your local recycling center. If you are lucky (or convincing), you may even be able to negotiate for cheaper residential pick-up.

• Buy carbon offsets. Carbon offsets exchange your inability to solve the problem locally with a global solution. One versatile non-profit offset provider is http://www.carbonfund.org. I found a comparison of several providers here: http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/carbon_offset_wind_credits_carbon_reduction.htm

Every positive change helps. Please remember this when you stock your supply shelves, pay your energy bill, remodel a building or finish a bottle of water. Remember each time you leave a room, flipping that switch helps us all.

By Jacob Swartwood
jacobs@ebizinsider.com

A few dozen recruits. A daily schedule. Hot meals. Yep. All the makings of a
Boot Camp. But this was not a traditional “Give me 50! Now!” style boot camp. Instead, it was a three-day long E-commerce extravaganza.

A few times each year, Solid Cactus
hosts its E-commerce Boot Camp, an event that displays the company’s vested interest in continuing to educate and inform its clients on the latest and greatest in e-commerce.

The Spring E-commerce Boot Camp drew a varied troop of e-commerce folks. Some were total e-commerce newbies, who were looking to launch their first online store. Others were veterans who have had online stores for a decade or more. Still others own brick-and-mortar stores, too. The clients came from across the US and Canada and the industries were also varied– food, vitamins, health and beauty products, clothing, candy, custom gifts, pet supplies, awards and more.

Despite our different locales and perspectives, everyone was at Boot Camp to learn. The clients learn from the Solid Cactus staff. Clients learn from each other. Solid Cactus learns from its clients. Every day is a school day in e-commerce, and Boot Camp is an extension of that.

The Latest and
Greatest in E-commerce

Between 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday to 4:00 p.m. on Friday, there were 17 sessions, from e-commerce basics to what’s hot and new in the industry.

The sessions included:

• Trust-commerce/Creative Value

• Advanced Features that Make the Sale

• Social Media & Viral Marketing

• Personalizing the Web Experience

• How to Plan for a Redesign

• Alternative Marketing Methods to Help You Grow Online

• New Features for Your Store from Solid Cactus

• Strategic Marketing

• Protecting Your Website
• Is it E-mail Marketing or is
it SPAM?

• Blogging for Business

• SEO vs. PPC.

Additionally, there were sessions that unveiled the newest Solid Cactus offering, Cactus on Demand and the ever-popular site deconstruction session.

“This year’s Boot Camp was ideal for both experienced e-commerce store owners, as well as new up and comers,” said Michael Jozaitis, Search Engine Marketing Manager at Solid Cactus. “The mix of sessions ranged from deep focused analytical and technical sessions to introductory and educational ones.”

“It was exciting to talk about social media with everyone there,” said Jean Lloyd, also a SEM manager. “They didn’t have a good hold on why it was important or even how they could leverage Facebook or Twitter for their business. Maybe some of them were still skeptical when we were done, but I could tell they were more receptive and had a clearer idea of how businesses are using these tools effectively. If even one participant gets the courage to sign up for Twitter and start promoting their business, then I’ll feel good.”

Joan Marchand of MMWIEmbroidery.com said she wished she had attended an event like this before she started her e-commerce site. “(Boot Camp) was very informative,” said Joan. “I think if I came to Boot Camp first, I would have learned from square one, what the best things are to have on my website, what makes people buy from my website.”

Andrew DiMino of CarbSmart.com and a Solid Cactus customer since 2003, is currently getting ready to publish his fifth site, BabyontheBrain.com. His four other sites focus on food products for those on lo-carb, sugar-free or gluten-free diets. His new site is completely different. “This is my first non-food venture, so I am looking forward to taking advantage of all these new features that I didn’t use before,” he said.

DiMino paid particular attention to the sessions focusing on new features and redesigns. It took three planes and three layovers to get from Reno to Wilkes-Barre, but he says it was worth it. “First, you get the chance to meet the staff in person and actually sit down and point to the screen. As a planning exercise, it’s fantastic. Second, I get to see what is new and coming up. Third, I get to suggest new ideas. Fourth, I get to learn best practices from other businesses,” he said.

Clarice “Corky” Fairchild from HorseandWildlifeGifts.com/All Things Equine is currently under redesign with Solid Cactus. She is not new to retail, but is somewhat new to e-commerce. “At first I thought coming would be way over my head, but felt if I was able to pick up a few things, it’d be worth it,” she said. “(Boot Camp) helped me understand the back side of things. My head has grown by leaps and bounds.”

Sharon Robson came along with her brother Fred Robson, of Woodstock Enterprises. Sharon is considering following her brother into e-commerce. “It was amazing,” she reported.
“I didn’t know anything coming into this. I’ve come a long way since Wednesday. Learning the difference between SEO and PPC was very interesting to me. It would have taken me months on my own to learn what I learned in three days.”

Face Time with
Your E-commerce Team

“It’s always good meeting people you work with,” said Fred Robson of his main reason for attending his third Solid Cactus Boot Camp. Robson utilizes several Solid Cactus services and met one-on-one with his account manager, his solutions advisor, marketing team, call center rep and the designers and the programmers working on his site.

“The individual attention you get when sitting face to face is great,” said Joan Marchand. “Solutions Advisor Justin Verry could go over things with me while I was right there. He gave me a good idea on where to channel my money, where to focus my efforts.”

While Boot Camp was in session, the magic was still happening at Solid Cactus world headquarters, where attendees were treated to a tour of the new Solid Cactus Technology Center in Shavertown, as well as Solid Cactus Call Center Services, Inc., located in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

E-commerce Camaraderie

Perhaps one of the best aspects of Solid Cactus Boot Camp is meeting other people in e-commerce- where else can you get one-on-one access to some of the most brilliant e-commerce experts in the country? While the daily sessions are an excellent learning experience, the learning continues after the sessions end and the evening activities begin.

Solid Cactus Boot Camp features activities each evening—from Italian dinner and karaoke to a night at the local casino and then a finale dinner where attendees are “graduated” from Boot Camp. During these events, clients and staff can interact over homemade Italian cooking and other catered affairs, sharing war stories, tactics and tales from the trenches.

Fred Robson likes the fact that he can meet other e-commerce business owners who have similar features on their site so they can compare notes. “It is always good to share ideas and make contacts,” he said, explaining that if he knows another Solid Cactus client has a certain feature, he can contact them to see how it is working. “Boot Camp is great to increase your contact network. It’s joining fun with the learning.”

Fairchild agrees with Robson about discussing current e-commerce issues with others.

“I think being able to network with other business owners is great. I can say, ‘I had that issue and this is what I did.’ You can discuss the issues,” she said, using how she asked Solid Cactus Boot Camp three-timer, Pam Marchola from BlairCandy.com about her Live Chat feature as an example.

The Solid Cactus staff also loves meeting clients in person. Lloyd enjoyed talking about SEM with clients over lunch and dinner. What she learned from Boot Camp attendees will help her with her day-to-day duties as an SEM account manager.

“It was awesome to interact directly with clients. I got a better feel for everyone’s level of knowledge on PPC & Internet Marketing in general. It’s going to help me when I send info out to my own clients,” she said.

Vice President of Sales Lou Pagnotti adds that clients learn from each other at Solid Cactus Boot Camps. “It’s more about learning how to maximize your business through interacting with other store owners and learning best practices and seeing innovative solutions from Solid Cactus,” he said.

Ron Miller attended Boot Camp to learn about e-commerce. He’s looking to take his beauty supply business online. “It was great to see people being so passionate about their websites. I am definitely glad I came,” he said.

Miller, who is new to e-commerce, talked quite a bit to DiMino, an e-commerce veteran of sorts. Folks like DiMino certainly can be looked upon as mentors for those new to e-commerce.

“The beauty of (Boot Camp) is that everybody talks to each other and shares best practices. That’s beautiful,” said DiMino of sharing the knowledge with each other.

Marchand says she had a wonderful time at Boot Camp interacting with her peers.

“We did a lot of laughing,” she said. “It was just interesting to talk with other website owners. It was a great experience. The food was great. The entertainment was great. The people were great. Everything was great!”

Solid Cactus Boot Camp is a must-attend event. As Marchand said, she wished there was an event like this before she got her e-commerce feet wet. DiMino has been
in e-commerce nine years, but says he is still learning each day.

Besides, where else can you sing a duet with your programmer?

Shipping prices have gone up—but many etailers still offer free shipping at the same threshold. What does this mean to your bottom line? Can you continue to offer free shipping when times are tough? What can you do to still gain the sale?

Free shipping adds value to the online shopping experience. But with gas prices soaring, the cost of other services are following suit—including shipping and delivery fees from the major carriers. This presents a challenge to etailers, who have traditionally offered free shipping as a booster for sales.

At the advice of his developer, Reagan Klohn of Brandsport.com recently increased his site’s free shipping threshold to $100, from $50. He made this increase in April, and reports that this increase had little impact on his steady stream of orders and in fact, helped increase his bottom line. “While I still feel there is some intrinsic value in being able to market our site using the ‘free shipping’ terminology, (I’m) convinced the we can raise the free shipping threshold without hurting our business,” Klohn reported in an e-mail to Solid Cactus.

On BrandSport.com’s homepage, a banner in his header touts the free shipping offer. While higher than his previous threshold, this “Free Shipping Over $100” message still communicates extra value. And, with a higher threshold, average order sizes are encouraged to increase as well.

Online retailers could take a cue from BrandSport.com by looking at their own free shipping promotions. Perhaps it’s time to look at an old issue in a fresh way. If the threshold is at $25, perhaps raise it to $50 or $75. Take a look at average order size and make a decision based on that. Your “free shipping” ad is still accurate and simply sets the bar at a new, higher level. You may decide to cancel free shipping altogether. It is true that some online retailers have successfully removed free shipping altogether and have seen little impact on their sales.

In a previous eBiz Insider article we focused on the value of negotiating better rates with the major carriers. If an e-commerce site has the volume, this could also be an option to look into saving on shipping costs. Think about revisiting your busiest shippers and see what they can do for you in exchange for your continued high volume with them. Finally, with products like Solid Cactus’ Shipping Manager, etailers can set shipping rules down to the item level to ensure that they are not losing on shipping, but are instead saving every penny they can possibly save.

Rising fuel prices is not a new problem plaguing e-commerce. Research for this article uncovered articles in the New York Times, C|Net and other online and print publications covering the jump. On August 19, 2005, CNet.com reported that online retailers were beginning to worry about the rising cost of gas. Back then, it had risen to $67 a barrel. Clearly we are looking at newer, vastly higher numbers.

The good news is that inflated fuel costs will only fuel e-commerce as more would-be shoppers look our way. Clearly, there is much to protect. A survey by Harris Interactive in April found that 57% of surveyed shoppers said it is free shipping that urges them to make an online purchase. This same survey also revealed that 33% of those surveyed are shopping online to save money on gas. Clearly, breaks on shipping will continue to impact consumers’ decisions about where
they buy.

There is no doubt that online sales will continue to soar as people opt for the information super highway rather than the asphalt highway. Online retailers can still be smart and increase sales and revenues by building value in other areas, while not losing on shipping costs.

If you’ve grown your business to the point where your employees are packed together like teenagers in a Miley Cyrus concert line, it may be time to move to larger quarters.

Maybe you’ve grown to the point where you’re ready to warehouse your inventory rather than using all drop-shippers. Maybe you’ve stopped outsourcing and are hiring in-house creative and customer service departments. Maybe sales are soaring and you simply need more hands.

Whatever your circumstances, growing pains are certainly “good” problems. Here, we’ll share some tips on how to make your move smooth.

Find the Right Location

Location, location, location! It’s the secret of real estate and a crucial consideration when scouting for new digs. Is the new place close to where the bulk of your workforce resides? Is it close to highways and major routes for your vendors and commuters? If you need warehouse space, is there room for tractor trailers to make deliveries? If it’s a new retail location, what’s the potential for foot traffic? Consider your next growth spurt. How much can
you grow before you outgrow the
new building?

Make note of quality of life issues. How many nice lunch or happy hour places or hot errand spots like banks, post offices, hair salons and the like are nearby? What are local taxes like? Parking is also important. Will employees have to pay for parking? Is there ample free parking?

Use the Move as an Excuse to Upgrade

A new address can function like a “new broom” throughout the rest of your business. You need new stationery anyway, how about a new letterhead? Since you’re calling the printer anyway, why not look into a fresh image?

Aside from stationery, as you get ready to move, take an inventory of computers, copiers, cabinets, storage and furniture. Are they in good shape? How old are they? If things need replacing and updating, use the move to set up new items and start fresh.

What to do with the old office equipment? Schools, community centers, non-profits and shelters are happy with desks and old equipment. Most groups will be happy to haul it away for you as well. Leave the old stuff behind; have the new stuff delivered to the new location.

Strategically Plan Your Move & Orient Employees to the New Location

Every business is different, but the goal is to move with as little downtime as possible. A key is to have your IT infrastructure and technical components in place so that employees can just plug-in when they arrive.

Moving in a phased approach eliminates loss of production. Create a schedule and have each department separately. Having a seating chart ahead of time will help transitioning employees get to their new desk/area with little confusion.

Hold an orientation session in the new building to provide all the “housekeeping” details. Where are the break rooms, bathrooms, meeting rooms, office supplies, emergency exits? Are there any new policies or procedures in place at the new location? Are there new security systems or alarms in place? What about that new office equipment? Setting up a training schedule for new copiers and other equipment would be a good idea and sales reps are usually willing to stop in and train your staff.

Keep Your Customers Informed & Hey, Tell the Media, Too

When Solid Cactus recently moved from downtown Wilkes-Barre to Shavertown, an e-mail went out to all clients informing them about the move.

Make your move a PR event. Contact the local papers and news stations to get coverage on moving day. Send a press release ahead of time and follow up with a day-of Media Advisory. Moving trucks and employees carrying boxes makes for good footage and photo opps. Phase II can be the ribbon cutting, where local public officials can appear and congratulate the company on its growth. Again, the media likes this kind of stuff. Aside from the daily news, also try to target your region’s business or lifestyle magazine.

Keep Growing!

For all the temporary aggravation, growing pains are good pains. Keep growing your business and maybe soon, you’ll get to move all over again.

With so many payment options available, which methods should you accept? The rule of thumb is to take whatever payment methods your customers offer. This doesn’t mean to suggest that you accept every payment method imaginable (most e-commerce operators shy away from payment in, say, live animals…).

It does mean to listen to your customers and try to be flexible enough to accept any reasonable payment methods that they actually want to use. As you decide, take into account your own financial situation, your demographics and price points. Remember, the methods you choose should match your customers’ needs and buying patterns.

What follows is a brief synopsis of each of the major alternative methods:

PayPal

What is PayPal? PayPal is an online payment processor owned by eBay. PayPal allows customers to create a PayPal account and pay for purchases using their credit cards or bank account. The buyer’s credit card or bank account information is never sent to the merchant – PayPal sends the merchant money instead. This protects the buyer’s information from being shared with endless different businesses and narrows the risk of having their personal information fall into the wrong hands.

Basically, PayPal works for—EVERYONE! Unless you have a good reason not to accept PayPal, accept it. Your customers will thank you.

PayPal Benefits:

• Already integrated with your Yahoo! store

• Rates are comparable to most merchant accounts

• Over 150 million online shoppers use PayPal worldwide

• Privacy: Actual credit card information is only seen by PayPal and not shared with merchants – this protects customers if a merchant compromises payment information

• Typically, PayPal users prefer to pay with PayPal because it gives them a single place to manage all of their purchases

• PayPal also offers express checkout

(Using express checkout, your customers’ information is already saved and populated for them so they don’t have to retype everything again. Because of this, express checkout conversion can be 40% higher than other modes of checkout.)

Bill Me Later

What is BML? Bill Me Later offers financing to your customers. When purchasing through your site and Bill Me Later, your customers are able to purchase high ticket items with no money down and no payments for 90 days!

Who should consider incorporating BML? Merchants who are doing at least $5M a year in online revenue and selling higher ticket items are obvious candidates.

Bill Me Later Benefits:

• Offers affordable payment terms
on high ticket items (jewelry, computers, etc)

• 50%+ increase in average order value, up to 150% when combined with promotional financing

• Easy integration through the industry’s largest payment processors, so authorization and settlement flow through existing interfaces

Google Checkout

What is GC? Google Checkout is a
fast, convenient checkout process that allows customers to buy from you with a single login.

Which businesses are the best candidates? Anyone advertising on the Google Adwords platform with an e-commerce website that is compatible with Google Checkout should consider GC.

Google Checkout Benefits:

• $50 in free adwords

• 21% discount on FedEx shipping

• Free credit card processing (as long as your sales don’t exceed 10 times your Google Adwords spend)

• Google Checkout users click on ads 10% more when the ad displays the Checkout badge and convert 40% more shoppers who have not used the Checkout in the past

• Checkout’s Payment Guarantee protects 98% of Checkout orders on average – when an order is guaranteed, you get paid even if it results in a chargeback

Summing Up

Each of the above methods has its strengths and each should be strongly considered, based on your business. PayPal is widely trusted by consumers who shop actively but want security. Bill Me Later offers credit options which can be particularly attractive to high ticket shoppers. Google Checkout offers the ability to buy with a single login and falls under the highly-trusted Google umbrella. Consider your business, consider your customers and choose accordingly.

If you thought tax season was a trial, e-commerce operators haven’t seen anything yet. By the end of the year, 23 states will be charging e-commerce businesses taxes. Imagine. Different products are categorized differently and taxed differently in different states! But never fear; Solid Cactus and Avalara can make your life easier when it comes to charging and collecting taxes as well as assembling the necessary tax reports.

The problem many merchants on the Yahoo! Store platform encounter is that you need to manually set up all the zip code ranges and add a flat rate or percentage. This is time consuming and must be manually updated when county level, city or municipality taxes change. In Tennessee, the sale of an item is subject not only to the state sales tax of 7%, but the local sales tax on the first $1,600, plus an additional state sales tax of 2.75% on the second $1,600, all of which cannot exceed $3,200 - potentially subjecting a sale to a 9.75% sales tax rate. Confused yet? Here are some other exotic tax laws:

• In Minnesota, non-edible cake decorations are taxable, but edible cake decorations are exempt.

• In Texas, plain nuts are exempt “food,” but once a candy coating is added, they become taxable “candy.”

• In Rhode Island, fruit juice that is less than 100% pure is taxable. Cranberry juice cocktail – a mixture of juice and water, or concentrate — is exempt.

• In Massachusetts, a clothing item costing up to $175 is exempt from sales tax. However, any item costing $175.01 and above is subject to the 5% state sales tax.

• In New Jersey, naturally carbonated water is exempt, but artificially carbonated water is taxable.

• In Pennsylvania, state and U.S. flags are not subject to tax, but if either is sold with “accessories” (i.e. a pole), the entire purchase becomes taxable.

With many states adopting the Streamlined Sales Tax or SST (http://www.streamlinedsalestax.org/) there will be more rules in which products will need to be taxed. Some changes will be difficult for merchants to manage as they relate to how products are sold. Currently17 states are “Full Members” of the SST:

• Arkansas

• Indiana

• Iowa

• Kansas

• Kentucky

• Michigan

• Minnesota

• Nebraska

• Nevada

• New Jersey

• North Carolina

• North Dakota

• Oklahoma

• Rhode Island

• South Dakota

• Vermont

• West Virginia

• Wyoming

In addition to the 17 “Full Members” several other states are considered “Associate Members,” meaning they’re in line with the SST requirements although the state is not yet in full compliance. They are:

• Ohio

• Utah

• Tennessee

• Washington

The SST rules will affect different merchants in different ways which could make calculating sales/use tax a “taxing” task. Finally, there is a solution.

Solid Cactus has partnered with Avalara, a leading provider of real-time tax calculations and a SST certified tax solution. Among the features of this partnership are:

Reports and Remittance:

Save time and resources by using a single solution, integrated into your financial application to submit one remittance payment. Avalara not only takes care of the forms you need for each jurisdiction where you have nexus, but also remits the liability on your behalf.

Reporting Tool:

Comprehensive and easy to use, Avalara’s reports provide detailed, summary and exception reports to satisfy statutory tax return requirements. Ensure full statutory compliance, superior internal process controls, and best practices for sales and use tax.

Reports:

AvaTax offers a crucial component to sales tax compliance: detailed, on-demand reports provide you with quick access to the information needed to prepare and submit sales tax returns. You can easily and quickly generate reports, which can be exported to the file format that works best for you.

The Shipping Manager integration with Avalara lets you offer features to enhance your business performance and will make your life much less stressful come tax season.

The rate of fraud associated with international orders is over two-and-one-half times that of domestic orders. Merchants also reject international orders at a rate of two-and-one-half times higher than domestic orders.
- CyberSource

No two words set an e-commerce store owner’s blood boiling like “fraud” and “chargeback.” Unfortunately, they’re all too common.

The CyberSource 9th Annual Online Fraud Report estimates that $3.6 billion went to online fraud last year. We’ve all lost our share.

Fraud will continue to grow along with e-commerce unless we stop bad orders before they hit the package car. The question is, how?

Be Wary of Foreign Orders
Merchants surveyed by CyberSource said “the rate of fraud associated with international orders is over two-and-one-half times that of domestic orders. Merchants also reject international orders at a rate of two-and-one-half times higher than domestic orders.”

When I ran our former pet supply division, we had a many international orders and were occasionally burned. We developed a straightforward no-exception international policy:

• International customers must fax a copy of the credit card (front and back) along with a signed copy of the order
• The issuing card bank must verify billing information
• No orders to third-world or developing countries
• Absolutely no orders to Nigeria, the fraud capital of the world

We immediately caught numerous orders before the card was run when customers could not provide information. After we established a relationship with the international customer (at least 2 orders without a problem) we noted their account and streamlined the process.

Shipping to international destinations teaches you which country’s postal systems are corrupt and whose agents steal packages rather than deliver them. You learn which countries let you bypass customs if you mark the package as containing “religious articles.” Sadly, you’ll also learn which countries either hold packages for months or don’t deliver them at all.

Beware of Warning Signs
International fraud may be most prevalent, but we have plenty here at home, too.

The first warning of a fraudulent order is a package with a “ship to” address in a different state than the “bill to” address and is being shipped next-day air. In this case the “perp” will have stolen a credit card. He or she will get the billing address and take delivery at a vacant house, a house known to be empty at a specific time, or an empty lot. Because it’s next day air, the perp stakes out the location, meets the delivery, signs and disappears with the package. Trust me, it happens!

We immediately flagged orders like these and had a CSR contact the credit card’s fraud department to verify if the customer had a valid shipping address on file and if fraudulent activity had previously occurred on the card. We matched the shipping name address to the house registration. Next, we would run the card and match the AVS. Finally, we called the customer for verbal confirmation before releasing the information. It’s not always 100%, but it reduced fraud.

Policies and Procedures Provide Protection

• Always, always, always, use address verification (AVS) with your credit card processor. AVS compares house numbers and zip codes of what you’re sending and what the customers have on file with their card company. If it doesn’t match, proceed with caution. AVS is generally available only for US cardholders in Canada and the UK.
• You are considered a card-not-present merchant and must obtain a card verification number (CVN, CVV2, CVC2, or CID). These three- or four-digit numbers verify that the card is in the possession of the card holder. This verifies, but does not guarantee the card isn’t stolen.

What if I’m a Victim of Fraud?
Usually, you’re out of luck. When a person who had a card used in a fraudulent transaction files a chargeback with the bank, you’re notified and allowed to file a response. Review the documentation with the chargeback notification and file the response even if it appears like fraud. Have it on file. Unfortunately, CyberSource reports that only 40% of chargebacks filed are won. If it’s a clear case of fraud, you won’t win a chargeback. File the paperwork, provide the transaction information and cross your fingers.

Fraud is real and some scams will get through. Still, having policies in place and being diligent are a good start.

How does your business combat fraud?
Contribute your thoughts to our website at our forum.

As employees spend more and more of their workday on the computer, it is crucial to develop and enforce an effective and proper Internet and Computer Usage Policy. There are legitimate reasons for having such a policy and a variety of issues the policy should address.

Personal Internet use costs employers millions of dollars each year in wasted time by employees. To reduce this lost productivity it is important to limit Internet use during working hours to business use only.

Yes, You Need a Policy
Legal liability can arise from inappropriate web browsing, improper posting in forums and on blogs, downloading pirated software, or illegally downloading media files, such as movies and music. Companies can face significant exposure to lawsuits and fines for their employees’ inappropriate actions and an effective policy can help prevent such legal exposure.

Employee Internet use can damage a company’s computer systems and clog their network. A virus entering into a corporate network can have disastrous consequences such as business shutdowns or loss of files. Also, personal use of the Web may use enough bandwidth to seriously slow the network and negatively affect productivity.

Moreover, a company must protect its reputation. Messages published on a message board, chat room or blog using a staff member’s company e-mail can have an effect on the company’s reputation, especially if it contains offensive or inappropriate material.

Developing a Policy
Before implementing a comprehensive Internet and Computer Usage Policy, the company should identify which activities to monitor and manage. Such activity might include web browsing, forum and blog posting, instant messenger use, and down-loading media, software and other associated content while at work or otherwise on the job.

The policy should accurately reflect the company’s procedures in monitoring and managing its employees’ internet and computer use. The policy should stipulate that internet access and other online privileges provided by the company are to be used only for business purposes. The company should state that employees’ use of the Internet and computer system will be monitored for illegal or improper activity. The policy should clearly define what activities are considered improper, and may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination. The company should state that it may report illegal activities to the appropriate authorities.

Examples of activities to be addressed and/or prohibited in the policy:

• Violating the laws and regulations of the United States or any other nation, or the laws and regulations of any state, city, province or other local jurisdiction;
• Using the company’s system or network to knowingly disable or overload any computer system or network, or to circumvent any system intended to protect the privacy or security of another user;
• Using the company Internet access to commit infractions such as misuse of company assets or resources, sexual harassment, and misappropriation or theft of intellectual property;
• Presenting an employee’s personal opinions as those of the company;
• Browsing websites which contain hateful or obscene content;
• Downloading or distributing pirated software or data;
• Downloading or distributing media files, in violation of copyright or other intellectual property laws; and
• Downloading or installing any software or electronic files without proper authority.

A company may want to include in the policy that the specific websites visited are logged, the frequency and length of time individuals spend viewing websites will be logged, and that if instant messenger use is allowed for business purposes IM’s sent and/or received can be logged and viewed. The policy should also stipulate which employees are to be covered by the policy.

Making it Work
The policy should become part of the company’s employee manual and should be distributed to all employees. If possible, the company should ask all employees sign off on receipt of the policy (or the manual) prior to getting access to company computers or email accounts. By signing, employees are confirming that they are aware of company policies, restrictions and limitations.

Internet and computer misuse and abuse have become too prevalent for companies to overlook. As employees’ daily routines evolve, businesses must be willing to adapt. Developing and enforcing a comprehensive Internet and Computer Usage Policy is a crucial component for business evolution.

Imagine you were kidnapped and dropped in the midst of a jungle. Worse, you’re in hostile territory, you hear guns and people approaching. How do you get out of this crazy predicament?

I bet you’re wishing that Rambo just showed up with all of his survival knowledge, tools, and equipment and helped you get out of this mess.

Where am I going with this? I strongly believe that in today’s fast moving data-driven age, every website owner must have an advanced analytics package. If you don’t, then you
really are lost and you’ll need a Rambo.

The good news is Google is offering an advanced analytics package–FREE! Your favorite price. Google Analytics is an advanced web package which allows you to get a 360° view of visitor behaviors and trends. Go to http://www.google.com/analytics/ and sign up for a free account. A piece of code (provided by Google Analytics) is inserted on each page of your website and you’re good to go. It’s a little more involved for Yahoo! stores, which we will discuss below.

Google Analytics allows you to understand everything that is happening from the visitors’ arrival until the time they order, so that you can make educated changes and improvements to your store. It is a given that if you are serious about making money online, you need concrete data to make educated decisions. It has become imperative for us to analyze each change made to our store, as it has a direct effect on the intended consumer’s behavior. The good old days of relying solely on your traditional hosting package’s analytics or Yahoo! stores’ analytics are over.

Google Analytics gives the e-commerce operator the capability of analyzing key factors such as:

• Total Traffic - Repeat visitors vs. unique visitors.
• Origin of Traffic –Tracking the countries/states of your users.
• Source of the Traffic - Direct, Search Engines, Other referring sites, etc
• Medium of the Traffic - Organic/Natural Results, Paid Search Analysis (One click integration with Google Adwords), etc.
• Keyword Analysis – Keywords used to find your website can help you with evaluating your organic rankings on different search engines.
• Top Pages – Most popular pages within your website.
• Page Performance - Bounce Rates/Exit Rates – people leaving your page/website, time spent by each user, etc.
• Content Drilldown - How the user navigates throughout your website.
• Site Overlay – What part/links throughout your website are being clicked on the most.

To make this even sweeter, with a little bit of code modification Google Analytics can provide key marketing insights for e-commerce stores including:

• Conversion Rates – Broken down by Medium (defined above), time of day, etc.
• Customized Goals – Allows you to specify which metrics you want to measure (e.g. - I want a visitor to land here, and my goal is to lead them here. How often was I successful?)
• Shopping Cart Abandonment – How many people are clicking on the add to cart button but not completing the transaction (Analyzing the breakdown of the cycle allows you to correct the flaws and weak spots)
• E-commerce – It allows you to see how much money each source/medium produced, and from which origin. Also allows you to see which are the top-converting products, etc.
• Tracking other Marketing Initiatives – Such as Email, media/banner placements, Yahoo!/MSN PPC, etc.

The above information is a few clicks and a couple minutes away. It’s also just a glimpse of what can be derived from Google Analytics.

There is a minor obstacle for Yahoo! Store Owners. Unfortunately, due to the Yahoo! store leaving the domain to complete the transaction (after the user adds something to the cart), you need to customize the code in order to extract marketing data like conversion rates, revenue, popular items, etc. The good news is, Solid Cactus is now offering a 20% off for Ebiz Insider readers. This offer is good through March 31st, so go to http://www.solidcactus.com/google-analytics.html and enter the coupon code “Rambo”.

The information is out there, Google Analytics will help you get it and make sense of it, and Yahoo! store owners get a Solid Cactus discount this month only. So–why wait?

Shipping Manager is a hosted solution developed to offer merchants the ability to not only offer real-time rates via UPS but also allows calculations real-time via FedEx and USPS. In addition to the ability to pull real time rates, merchants can also elect to use rate tables as well. This option gives merchants the flexibility to charge shipping costs based on their business needs. This allows merchants to charge accurate shipping rates on the items they sell no matter what method you use.

Customize Your Shipping
Shipping Manager also offers the ability to customize your shipping from the item level. Some of the item levels include marking items as “Free Shipping” so that they are always a $0.00 shipping rate no matter which method of shipping customers choose. You can also specify select shipping methods that are available as free shipping for an item. Box dimensions can be specified to ensure an accurate charge and at the same time items can be specified as over-sized. An “Origin Zip” can be assigned to an item in addition to help calculate a more accurate charge. If your items have multiple boxes you can specify how many boxes the item requires for shipping and you can even include the individual box sizes and weights. Additional Markups can also be added to each item. This adds markups to the shipping rate already calculated by either the real-time rates or the rate table. This type of customization is helpful if you want to make sure you are charging for handling or shipping supplies.

You can also create custom shipping methods. This is extremely useful for merchants who ship very small items or very large items as you can specify minimum and maximum weights, order values and, if you choose, you may include a “Free Shipping” threshold.

Calculate Your Tax Charges
Shipping Manager is also able to calculate tax charges. Merchants can set the Tax Rate as a percent, flat rate or both per state or Canadian Province. Have you ever undercharged tax in a state? Is tax time a nightmare for your business? Need more accurate tax rates? Solid Cactus has you covered. We have partnered with Avalara to offer our clients the ability to calculate real-time tax rates based on the Zip+4. Not only will Avalara allow you to charge accurate, real-time tax rates but it will also offer reporting so you know where you collected various taxes from and how much was collected.

Show Customers Their Shipping Rates
Solid Cactus also will be offering a new tool to help shoppers see the shipping rates before they even add an item to the cart. Far too much shopping cart abandonment occurs because of shoppers adding an item to the shopping cart just to see what the shipping charge is on it. To help combat this, Solid Cactus offers a Shipping Calculator which can be integrated on the Yahoo! Item Page. When a shopper is thinking about buying an item, he or she will be able to enter in their zip code and instantly see the shipping charges for all methods on that item. Now shoppers will know exactly what they will be paying before they even add the item to the cart. Conversely, if you don’t want to show all your shipping methods on the item page, you don’t have to. You will be able to specify which shipping methods and costs to show on the item page.

Shipping Manager from Solid Cactus can help you customize your shipping, calculate your tax charges and show customers their shipping rates. Want to get Shipping Manager integrated into your Yahoo! Store? Want to talk in more detail about its functions? Give Solid Cactus a call at 888.361.9814.

If you’d like more information about Avalara, visit: http://www.avalara.com/